Sir, – Further to "Cox willing to assist US inquiry over Ukraine role" (February 26th), I fear this headline, although accurate, overdramatises any useful assistance that I could offer to events unfolding across the Atlantic. In this particular version of Hamlet I do not warrant even a walk-on part on the scale of Rosencrantz or Guildenstern. Asked by The Irish Times if I intended contacting the Mueller inquiry, I answered no. Asked the supplementary question would I be willing to assist, I answered in the positive but my assistance would, in my view, be of no material worth.
I never have lobbied for or on behalf of any government or any elected representative of Ukraine. I never have been to Washington DC in relation to any such activity. I do not know and never have had any private contact with Mr Paul Manafort or any of the several organisations recently mentioned as associated with him.
I have spoken about Ukraine in Dublin, London, Paris, Luxembourg and Davos, always invited by the host organisation but never paid. I am not a lobbyist for Ukraine but am willing to be a not uncritical advocate in its cause.
My work in Ukraine was requested and mandated by the European Parliament. It was and remains entirely pro bono publico. My mission schedules and content were and are prepared in advance by European Parliament staff who always are present as notetakers. The only exception to this was the refusal of President Yanukovich to admit them to meetings. Absent official notetakers, I took and have kept contemporaneous notes of these meetings and briefed the European Parliament staff subsequently. It is my practice not to arrange meetings unforeseen by the official programme.
I take pride in the work done and in its contribution to democracy building in Ukraine, modest though that may be. – Yours, etc,
PAT COX,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.